Localization of sites modified during inactivation of the bovine heart mitochondrial F1-ATPase by quinacrine mustard using [3H]aniline as a probe.

The aziridinium of purified quinacrine mustard at 50 microM inactivates the bovine heart mitochondrial F1-ATPase with a pseudo-first order rate constant of 0.07 min-1 at pH 7.0 and 23 degrees C. An apparent Kd of 27 microM for the enzyme-reagent complex was estimated from the dependence of the rate of inactivation on the concentration of quinacrine mustard. The pH inactivation profile revealed that deprotonation of a group with a pKa of about 6.7 is necessary for inactivation. The amount of reagent incorporated into the protein increased linearly with the extent of inactivation. Complete inactivation was estimated to occur when 3 mol of reagent were incorporated/mol of F1. Enzyme, in which steady state ATPase was inactivated by 98% by quinacrine mustard, hydrolyzed substoichiometric ATP with zero order kinetics suggesting that residual activity is catalyzed by F1 in which at least one beta subunit is modified. By exploiting the reactivity of the aziridinium of covalently attached reagent with [3H] aniline, sites modified by quinacrine mustard were labeled with 3H. Isolation of radioactive cyanogen bromide peptides derived from F1 inactivated with the reagent in the presence of [3H]aniline which were identified by sequence analysis and sequence analyses of radioactive tryptic fragments arising from them have revealed the following. About two thirds of the radioactivity incorporated into the enzyme during inactivation is apparently esterified to one or more of the carboxylic acid side chains in a CNBr-tryptic fragment of the beta subunit with the sequence: 394DELSEEDK401. The remainder of the radioactivity is associated with at least two sites within the cyanogen bromide peptide containing residues 293-358 of the beta subunit. From these results it is concluded that inactivation of F1 by the aziridinium of quinacrine mustard is due, at least in part, to modification of one or more of the carboxylic acid side chains in the DELSEED segment of the beta subunit and possibly also to modification of unspecified amino acid side chains between residues 302-356 of the beta subunit.